Odd
by Ms.GrinAndCry
Summary: She was odd. Her dress code, her mannerisms, her quirks and her speech patterns. She was odd and they were damned if they said they didn't care.
1. Chapter 1

She was odd.

Not only was her dress code strange, but her mannerisms were also peculiar.

I don't know what it was about her, maybe the strange twinkle in her eye, or the way her lips curved when she talked, but there was just _something…_

"Come along, kid," She said, her face suddenly startlingly close to mine. I refrained from yelping when I felt her brush something off my cheek.

She quirked an eyebrow, an amused smile threatening to bloom. "Something the matter, Gaara?"

I frowned. "No. It's nothing."

She kept staring at me, and I shifted uncomfortably.

The woman, she insisted I call her Bonita. At first I refrained, for every time I decided to call her she seemed to think it highly hilarious. She would grin and blow me a kiss, leaving me utterly baffled.

It's not like I haven't had any experiences with women. I mean, I'm used to having, well, "highly devoted" individuals following me, but she… she was just a different story.

Glancing at her right now, I can't help but think she sticks out like a sore thumb.

First of all, she can't be taller than five feet. She constantly dyes her hair (which can't be healthy, I presume) and always wears that ridiculous top hat on. Right now, for example, she is sporting a deep purple hair color.

"Seems to me, seems to me like…" Her lips curled into a smirk, "Like Gaara-_kun_ needs a well-deserved break? Perhaps, perhaps… A skip along the beach? A ride along the sea? Which is it gonna be, which is it gonna be?"

Her hands were grasping mine as she pulled me away from my desk.

"Wait, Bonita-," I frowned, glancing back at my unfinished paperwork, "I still need-,"

"Nonsense," She said, cutting me off, "None. Sense. Hmnn. No sense? Oh, in any case. Let's get going!"

I sighed, letting her pull me along. It's not like I was about to get anything done, either way.

Bonita.

Bonita, Bonita, _Bonita._

Whatever do I make of her?

Well, if I were to analyze how she came to be, I would start at the beginning.

A flash in the sky, the screams and commands of shinobi ready to defend the village, a deafening silence as we all watched a beam of light pummel to the ground.

Of all the things crossing my mind at that moment, I was not expecting the mysterious object to be a person.

Least of all one as odd as her.


	2. Chapter 2

"Tell me, child. What is bothering you?" Bonita leaned against the rail, a cigarette in her lips as she stared out at the village below us.

Just looking at her in that moment, her hair sweeping behind her and the smoke twirling above her hair, made me realize how much I wanted to spill my worries out to her.

It was an unusual feeling. Unusual, but one I came to know over time. I wanted people to look at me, to listen.

I wanted to be spoiled, to be comforted. Why, of all times, now, I had no idea.

Pursing my lips, I stood beside her, crossing my arms across my chest.

I could see her from the corner of my eyes, and I knew she could see me without sparing me a glance.

That was just how she was.

"I… Well. It's nothing really important, I think, but, as of recently I've come to realize that people can be really cruel. No, yeah, I know. I know. '_Just now you're realizing that?!'_ But that's not what I meant." I took a deep breath. "What I mean to say is… I'm not just talking about-," I winced, "-prejudice. It's not just the jinchurikis and the children who are born with a kekkei genkai. I'm talking about in general."

I frowned. _I'm not making any sense, am I?_

"People are angry, Gaara," I heard Bonita whisper. She took a breath and puffed out some smoke, a wry smile making a way into her face. She glanced at me slightly, and I knew she understood.

Her eyes told me all I've ever wanted to know.

Licking her lips, Bonita continued, "We are human. Humans are beings that act based on emotions and logic and instinct. We are creatures of passion, whether it be good or bad. Has anyone ever asked you, '_Do you know what it's like to be human?',_ Gaara?"

I shook my head, staring at her.

"No?" She smiled bitterly, "Then let me ask you now. What does it mean to be human?"

I pondered for a minute.

"Well… to be human is to survive?" I looked at her.

She chuckled. "Close, child, and yet so far."

Suddenly, she turned to face me, and looked at me with her brown eyes that held oh so many things.

She looked at me, _through me,_ and she looked at what I wanted to be.

With her smoldering eyes she caught my own, and I could feel myself grow tense as her eyes shifted with some foreign emotion.

"To be human means many things and only one thing at the same time. Humanity is a complex thing. Humans are creatures of destruction, of pain and greed and envy and lust and unsatisfied hunger… We are parasites that roam the land and plunder its children. But we are also part of the land itself.

To be human is to grow in oneself. To look at the bright side and grasp for more. Not everything that is related to humanity is bad, Gaara. There are people out there that are not thoroughly as angry as the others. There are people who practice what they preach and teach the orphaned and shelter the damned.

This-," Her hands grasped at her chest, her eyes burning into my own, "is what it's like to be human, kid. The beating of a clock that pumps life and gives us purpose."

I stared at her wide-eyed, but quickly composed myself.

"I see…"

Bonita smiled softly.

We stared back at the sunset and watched as the horizon made the sky its canvas.

To be human… to be cruel and to be gentle…

Huh.

What an odd existence.

'_But.'_ I thought, smiling slightly at my village, '_Not at all such a terrible one.'_

Bonita grinned.

"Nope. Not at all!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Bonita**

My name is Bonita. Alas, that is not my real name, but it is what I prefer to be called. In fact, I go by many names now, but that one will suffice.

Are you wondering who I am? Even though I've told you my name?

But of course.

And I mean that in the most humble of ways. After all, my name alone cannot tell you my story.

Especially such an odd story as this one.

Well, some people might start at the beginning, but a story such as this one can only start during the climax.

So that's where I'll take you…

* * *

"_FUCK!"_

No, no, no, no, no.

This can't be happening.

It can't.

This isn't- this is- no, it shouldn't- ugh, fuck!

I scrambled for balance, my limbs flailing wildly as I tried to cancel out the force of gravity with my weight.

I was falling.

I was falling and there was NO way in hell I was gonna make it alive.

The wind was tearing my clothes apart and I could feel the small pebbles and stones that it carried scratch my face.

I tried to open my eyes, but at the velocity at which I was falling it was impossible to do so without risking some kind of injury to my eyesight.

I could, however, hear screams and shouts somewhere around me.

"Shit!"

I managed to open my eyes when I felt something scratching my arms and legs. My eyes widened as I realized I was surrounded by trees.

No, no, no, no.

Oh, fuck.

I tumbled amongst the branches, quickly covering my face and trying uselessly to hold onto a branch.

In the end, I could only brace myself as I saw the ground getting closer.

In a matter of seconds, I heard the distinctive crunch of bone hitting ground, and few moments later I felt it.

My eyes fluttered as I screamed, agony embracing me and the darkness creeping around the edges of my vision.

* * *

I awoke and all was dark.

I could hear whispers and yelling, and just as I was trying to make out where I was, an explosion of pain hit me square in the gut, causing me to scream.

Suddenly, hands were all over me, touching me, soothing me, but the pain remained the same.

I groaned and whimpered.

I felt someone push something cold against my lips and tilt my head back.

Water. They were giving me water.

I swallowed the liquid greedily, my throat constricting painfully.

"_She's responding-,"_

"_A miracle-,"_

"_Poor child. You should've seen-,"_

The whispers of the people around me blended into a collage of sound.

* * *

I awoke two weeks later, bandaged and beaten and confused.

The medical staff had taken off the bandages around my eyes. Gulping, I scanned the room where I was residing, and my eyes focused on a figure leaning against the wall.

The vivid shade of red was what caught my attention first, then the calculating emeralds that stared at me impassively.

He was a young boy, maybe sixteen, seventeen. Still just a baby.

But his eyes.

He had the eyes of a warrior. Of a brother.

I sent him a lopsided grin.

"Hey." I croaked.

* * *

And that's how I met Gaara, the boy with the kanji of "_love"_ tattooed on his forehead.


End file.
